The 'Games' of The Natural World

 

By Harry Cummins

     While the eyes of the world currently center on the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, photographer Dan Johnson took time out this week to give us a private glimpse from the natural world to rival that of any aerials or axils streaming from the slopes and ice surfaces of Beijing.  

     Several years ago, an article in National Geographic described how seagulls have developed a cruel hunting strategy never seen before in the animal world - eating the eyeballs of  live seal pups.

     Yesterday, while on a stroll along the waterfront in Portland, Oregon, Johnson captured the rare revenge of a parental seal. This remarkable photograph begs the question: Is cruelty strictly a human construct that does not extend to the natural world?

     These aquatic exercises by gulls and seals certainly cause one to give pause.

hcummins@aol.com

    

Like Tifffany's On Ice

by Harry Cummins

     Upon watching Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France whirl their way to ice dancing Olympic Gold the other night, it was left to NBC commentator and two-time Olympian himself, Johnny Weir, to drop-spin the best quote of the Beijing Games to date:

      "Watching these two skate makes me feel like I just walked into a luxury store I couldn't afford"

Gabriela Bhaskar photo

Craw’s Corner, 2/14/22

 By Gregory Crawford @wchoops

It is time to take a hard look at the economy in the United States. Yes, I am not Dr. Doom and never have been, but I am always a realist and have been my entire life. I do not see a rosy future in the next 18 months. To keep it simple, inflation, interest rates and gas prices are poised to wreak havoc. They are the 3 keys to watch for the average consumer. 

And yes I didn’t even mention record rise in housing prices and crime in many areas. My word to the wise, don’t get over confident and pay attention to your wallet, before it gets empty.

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Are you like me? Totally annoyed by the lack of drivers using their turn signals. Yes you are laughing right now cause faced this awful phenomenon already today. How tough is it too signal. If you are a violator of this act, please change your ways.

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Happy Valentines Day. 

When Drug Testing Becomes the Obstacle

 

By Harry Cummins

     If tainting baseball's treasured names with our annual Hall-of-Fame balloting isn't enough, we've now managed to sully the slippery surfaces of the Beijing Winter Olympics with our as yet inability to understand and manage the complex issue of controlled substances in sport.

     The latest target of our well-intended ineptitude is the banned drug trimetazidine. We now have not only petite figure skaters, but bobsledders and curling sweepers under suspicion.  While we're at it, somebody should get a sample from that kid down the street who just shoveled his elderly neighbor's driveway in world-record time this week!

    What somebody should really put under the microscope is the sudden swell of sub-4 minute miles being clocked on the current indoor track and field circuit.  Seventy-nine NCAA men have now run a sub-4 mile THIS SEASON! Makes me want to lace on a pair of those super-spikes and give it a go myself.

    OK, in the face of all this, and a culture that finds difficulty imagining purity in human endeavor, we should at the very least summon Dr Fauci to appear before still another governing body to fully disclose what's really in those booster shots.

     One only hopes today's Super Bowl LVI is not decided on the strength of an 75-yard field goal. Let's see an NFL placekicker try to hurdle his way out of that post game press conference!  Of course, that's after he is first tested for drugs.

hcummins@aol.com

Craw’s Corner Is Back

 By Gregory Crawford @wchoops

It is with great pleasure that we bring back Craw’s Corner. One thing that is lacking overall is that many people are not good listeners . Well we listened and I asked many people what they would like to see in Craw’s Corner.

After listening here is how we will go forward. You will see content here every day except Friday. The stories will be short and the topics will consist of news, sports, business, politics and our world famous power rankings. 

Enjoy and comments always welcome or email at gregorycrawfordspeaks@gmail.com

Pac-12 Weekend Football Scores and My Power Rankings

Pac-12 Weekend Football Scores:

Friday:

Washington State 40, Washington 13

Utah 28, Colorado 13

Saturday:

Oregon 38, Oregon State 29

Arizona State 38, Arizona 15

UCLA 42, California 14

BYU 35, USC 31

Notre Dame 45, Stanford 14

Friday:

Pac-12 Football Championship Game:

Utah vs. Oregon at Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas

Saturday:

USC at California

Now, at long last, my Pac-12 Football Power Rankings. Feel free to discuss!

1) Utah

2) Oregon

3) Washington State

4) Oregon State

5) Arizona State

6) UCLA

7) USC

8) Washington

9) California

10) Stanford

11) Colorado

12) Arizona

Best of luck to Oregon and Utah this Friday night in the Pac-12 Football Championship Game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

I Know It Has Been Awhile

It has been a long time since I posted anything to Craw's Corner, so I figured that it was very much overdue.

During the summer, I covered Eugene's premier American Legion baseball team, the Eugene Overhead Door Challengers. The Challengers finished its season with an overall record of 50 wins and 14 losses, a second place finish in its league (Area 4) and an Oregon American Legion baseball state championship. The team also did extremely well at the Northwest Regionals in Gillette WY, but were eliminated on the next to last day of the tournament by the team from Idaho Falls ID, who ended its season winning its second straight American Legion World Series title.

Lately, I've been involved in covering high school football in the Eugene and Klamath Falls areas. This past season, I was a Public Address Announcer for the Marshfield High School football program during its game at Sheldon High School with Prairie High School of Vancouver WA and with Rainier High School at Cottage Grove High School. 

I was also a sideline reporter for two games for Mazama High School audio and video broadcasts on Wynne Broadcasting's 1240 AM and 106.5 FM The Winner (KRJW) and Medford-based Table Rock Sports and filled in for two radio broadcasts of Crescent Valley Raiders football in the Corvallis-Albany area on 720 AM KFIR.

An apology is also in order as I didn't have any 2021 Pac-12 Football Power Rankings posted this season. I should have, so I'll have the final regular season Pac-12 Football Power Rankings (my own) posted after this weekend's games.

Yours truly, Bill Crawford (no relation to Greg), will get back on the ball, so to speak, and post power rankings for Pac-12 Men's and Women's Basketball soon. 

In the meantime, please...be nice to one another, pray for our leaders (no matter how good or bad you may think they are)...and have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!

<Merry Christmas, too!>